On the Paws Front - Good News

We have guardedly good news about Sammy. Last Saturday morning, I took him in for his check up with Kay, our wonderful vet. The bad news is that Sammy has Lymphoma. The bumps and lumps I was concerned about turned out to be just fatty cysts (one calcified). The vet, however, found a little nipple like growth on Sammy's tummy. We are fortunate that she found it, because it is the nasty one and as with most cancers, the sooner it's found, the better to be able to treat it early.

Kay took more blood and sent it to pathology. The pathologist, who did the original test, said that with some slight abnormalities, everything important was within the norm. I say she's wonderful, because she called me at 8:00 PM on a Saturday night to let me know the test results - less than seven hours after the blood was taken.

So if Kay got the whole cancer with the little nipple-like thing she cut out, we might be in good shape. But nothing is for sure (except death and taxes as they say), so I will need to check Sammy for enlarged lymph nodes in certain areas of his body on a monthly basis. We will also have regular checkups at the vet's, because some of the changes can be extremely subtle and easily overlooked by inexperienced hands - mine!

So after a good flow of tears, I am somewhat stable again (everything is relative you know!) and my main worry has been keeping Sammy from licking his wounds. I got chastised for not making him wear the funny lampshade thing, but he looked so uncomfortable in it and kept bumping into everything!! Anyway, our next appointment is Thursday, and the stitches will come out. Things look like they are healing well.

Unfortunately, I came across a couple of lumps on Karma. One lump is small and I first noticed it about 6 months ago (I'm not very good about time, so I'm guessing here.) The other lump looks to be a small wound caused by a nasty twig jab. The small sores on this lump were slightly infected, so both dogs are on antibiotics.

Taking Karma to the vet is not fun. As soon as anyone tries to touch him, he goes ballistic. He tries to bite the vet when she is simply listening to his heart. For this reason, I have become expert in applying a muzzle. He doesn't like it, but it sure cuts down on some of the stress - and doggie bites.... and he is not kidding. I think he has some abuse issues as a puppy, so touching him in certain ways will incur doggie wrath and teeth. Thursday, the vet will try again to biopsy the one bump, and hopefully, it will be a fatty cyst.



I wonder at times, why people bother with health insurance without insuring their pets. In the last couple of weeks we have spent an easy $1k (AUD) on doggie health. Even my health expenses haven't been quite so dear! Oh well. What else to do? Sammy and Karma are my best buddies!

Luv and Hugs, Judi